Music (Maybe)

 

This pretty much sums up our past two weeks... and the coming week.  Music (maybe).  On a daily basis we have no clue what our schedule is going to be.  And the kiddos know it, as you can see above!  TCAP (our state testing) has completely consumed our lives.  And with only 4 tests left, we're ALL itching to be finished!  Does anyone have some tips for making it through these weeks?  Or how to make the weeks more bearable? (Teehee, check out the picture below... I crak myself up!  Get it?... bearable... ha!) 

Anyways, come on Wednesday... hurry up and get here!!  Better yet, next Thursday... Spring Break... Let's get a move on!!!  Woop woop. 

Here's a little funny that got shared today!  Made me giggle.

Happy {GREEN} Day!!

Happy St. Pattie's Day!!  Since I cannot buy you a green beer, here is the next best thing... A three day SALE!  Everything in my store will be 15% off, starting Friday, March 15th and lasting until Sunday, March 17th! 


Thank you to the fabulous Fancy Dog Studios, A Million Sighs Photography, Fonts for Peas, and Scrappin' Doodles.

So check it out, have some green food or drinks, and enjoy your weekend!!

Best. Birthday. Ever.

I absolutely LOVE birthdays.  I'm pretty sure I get it from my Momma who celebrates her birthday like there's no tomorrow.  Well, yesterday's birthday was no exception!  My kiddos were so sweet all day long. I was absolutely s.p.o.i.l.e.d.  I manage to always find some way to drag extend my birthday for at least a week, if not an entire month!  And the celebrating began the day before with some sweet glasses from one of my sweeties. 

I need to come up with a fun lesson that incorporates these bad boys!

Then Mrs. Co Teacher surprised me yesterday morning with a Dirty Chai from Starbucks... making me all sorts of giddy.  What a GREAT way to start the birthday!!

YUM, YUM, YUMMMM!!!

THEN (can you believe there's MORE!? I couldn't!) Mrs. Co Teacher pulled out all the stops with a Lorax themed birthday party to end the day!! 

It was SOOO much fun!!  She and some students set up while I was watching the class out on the playground.  And then they surprised me when I walked in.  Holy COW! The party was all ORANGE

and full of...

 

 

 ...MUSTACHES!!  How fun!  We all had so much fun showing off our mustaches, snacking on orange food, and OF COURSE watching The Lorax, one of my all time FAVS :) 

 

I am beyond blessed for my Co Teacher and the amazing little learners I have this year.  SO blessed. 

Hopefully you were able to participate in the sale I was throwing for this special day!  If not, have no fear!  St. Pattie's is near and there will be plenty for you to enjoy!  Stay posted for more news, coming tomorrow!!

HAPPY THURSDAY, everyone!!

Birthday Celebration!!

Clip Art and Fonts Provided by the amazing Fancy Dog Studio, A Million Signs Photography, Mrs. West Knows Best, and Fonts for Peas.

Thank you!

Namaste!

I've always been a fan of yoga... but I've rarely thought about using it in my classroom.  That is, until a fabulous parent of mine volunteered to come into our classroom and do yoga before EVERY single test of our state testing (all 12!!). 

Ummm, yes please!! 

I'm a believer in the benefits of yoga, and always did exercises and warm ups before testing, so this seemed like a match made in heaven!  And let me tell you, it has been.

Our little Warriors!

I'm not going to lie.  The first day, my kids were skeptical and super giggly.  The second day, they got a little better but still had some giggles, and the third day- they gave it their best shot and we had much less gigglers.  And MAN... there definitely was a difference.  After testing in a reallllly long Reading test on Thursday, my kiddos went to Music and the Music teacher even commented on how great our kiddos were.  What?!  That rarely never happens.  They were focused and driven.  I believe these kiddos are really benefiting from yoga!  Tomorrow morning we begin our heavy duty testing... two a days.  We're going to continue doing yoga before each test.  I'm dying to see if it continues to make a difference.  Have any other teacher used yoga in the classroom?  Or what about Brain Gyms?  What do you think about it all?

Sciiiiiience

Sciiiience.  I cannot lie.  I've admitted it before.  It's SOOOOOO not my thing.  And luckily it's Mrs. Co Teacher's thang.  Because at Parent Teacher conferences, that's all. I. heard. 

"My kiddo looooves what you're doing in Science right now"
"What you're doing in science sounds so cool"
"I wish we had done stuff like that when I was their age!"

And who can blame them.  Our kiddos... wait for it... extracted DNA from a strawberry this past week!  What?  That's what I said when I first heard about it.  But they did.  And it worked amazingly.  I was shocked.  I mean, I trusted that it would work, but admittedly not nearly as well as it did. 

You can grab the lesson plan here. 

You start off by mashing up a strawberry in a bag!

Then add in some mixture (see lesson plan!) and filter the mixture through a coffee filter. 

After you have some liquid in the cup, slooooowly pour in some chilled rubbing alcohol.  And VIOLA! 

 

Strawberry DNA shows up!!  It seems simple... and. it. is.  Wowzers.  This activity was insanely cool.  No joke, our 5th graders started wearing their DNA as necklaces.  I could have died, it was so funny!  They loved it.  And while it took quite a bit of prep, it was such an awesome lesson for these guys!  I would definitely recommend it for those of you teaching about fabulous DNA.  We also did a fun little activity, creating an edible model of DNA.  *Click the link for this lesson plan as well!*

Check these activities out to spice up your science classroom!  Enjoy!!

Testing, parents, conferences...

Eeeeeee!!  Happy Hour at Sonic is helping me make it through this insanity of a week!

Loving every minute of being busy, but soooo looking forward to Spring Break!!  Holla!  T-minus 14 days.

Deck the Halls!

Well Blogger friends,

It's that time of year again- State Test Taking Season.  It never ceases to come too fast... Like, really?  It's already March?  Whhhhatttt?  I swear it was just August...  Really! 

But here it is.  Today was our first day of testing and we have all kinds of craziness in our schedule.  In order to keep things light and fun, I was all inspired on Pinterest and found some CUTE wall coverings (Mr. Seuss Inspired!!).  It's always hard for me to cover up our beautiful anchor charts and learning, so Mrs. Co Teacher and I spent last Tuesday covering our walls a little differently than normal.  It took nearly 3 hours, but the final result was completely worth it!

Before....

We had already taken down most of that large bulletin board

AND (drum roll puhleaseeee)...
After!!

The Lorax! (I love his moustache!)

Check out those Truffela Trees :)

It's fun walking into a room that's a little brighter and decorative instead of bland and boring so this was a GREAT alternative for us.  We're also doing some fun things to keep our learners motivated during this crazy time of the year.  More to come about that later this week!  It's time for this teaching friend to go to bed- I'm beat!!